“I always tell our sixth and seventh runners that even though their place is not a scoring place, they can win a meet for us by displacing the other team’s runners,” coach John Kababik said.

It was Lakeland’s first dual meet victory this season (1-3).

Oakland County

Lakeland competed Saturday in the Oakland County meet, a week earlier than it has been over the last 50 years. As it turned out, the weather was much better one week earlier than in many past years, when cold weather and rain put a damper on runners’ performances.

The meet, at Kensington Metropark, is hosted by Milford High School, which does a tremendous job getting hundreds of runners where they should be with efficiency and accuracy.

Lakeland was without the services of senior Kara Cotter, who became ill that day, so the score of 439 points and a 17th-place was not a reflection of the team’s full strength.

Kababik did tell his runners that they showed great improvement over two previous races at Kensington.